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Monday, March 2, 2015

It's been a crazy, crazy time, but here are some things that have inspired me and kept me going:

TED Talks: Okay, I know I talk about TED Talks a lot, but they are SO GREAT. These people are so smart and creative. Here is a great list of TED Talks for writers. Also here is possibly my favorite TED Talk of all:

Welcome To Night Vale: This podcast is so hard to explain, yet so genius. I love what they do with story and language. Check it out, you will not regret it.

Instagram: Maybe it's cheesy, but Instagram may have won out as my favorite social media site lately. It's so fun and easy and personal. I know we writers deal in words, and not images, but there are poets and authors all over Instagram doing awesome things. If you're on Instagram, let's find each other :)

Brooklyn Nine Nine and Backstrom: These shows are amazing and hilarious. Rainn Wilson and Andy Sandberg are comedic geniuses. These shows are absolutely worth checking out, and I feel better after watching them.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

It happened! It's done!!! Novel number three has about 62000 words complete with a big old THE END at THE END.

So yeah, feeling this :)

This novel still is yet to be titled. However it is another YA novel about a 15 year old named Gertrude. She collects albino taxidermy and has panic attacks. The romantic interest is a Samoan boy named Lani, who serenades/teases her with Disney songs.

Much editing ahead of me, but I'm one of those who finds the editing process easier than the drafting. (Those of you who draft quick and easy--I envy you.) But yay! This novel is done and shall be edited and out to beta readers hopefully very soon.

Monday, February 23, 2015

One of the hardest parts about trying to make a living as a writer is figuring out how to find ways to get paid for what you're already doing: writing. I had a bit of an epiphany about this lately, and I'm going to see how it pans out.

See, I think many of us have ideas and random projects going on all the time. Just side stuff, but still. If you're like me, you like to go from poetry to flash fiction to magazine article to blog post to one-act-play to comic strip. I'm not sure how good I am at any of it, but I get a thrill trying my hand at all sorts of fun different things.

Here's how I've sort of been thinking up till now. I've been looking at these as what I just called them: "side" projects. Which in many ways they are, except not really. I've been focusing on selling myself, or my services maybe, finding people who want to hire a sort of week end freelancer. Which is great, don't get me wrong, but honestly it can be a little tedious and defeating a lot of times.

So now I'm sort of looking at it a little differently. Because if I'm doing all those random projects in my free time anyway, then in a lot of ways it doesn't make sense to try and get people to hire me for their random projects. I'm already working and creating, so why not focus instead on finding good homes for the work I'm already doing? I mean, I've been sort of doing that up till now as well, but I think that should be the main focus.

And that includes pitching non-fiction articles to magazines in topics I find interesting. And selling all the poems and stories and scripts and things I'm working on anyway. And maybe finding other talented artists to collaborate with.

In other words, I think its wise to take a book from the inimitable Hank Green, and create our own careers. To really be our own artists and make a career out of what we do best, rather than being someone elses artist. Does that make sense? And of course, that doesn't mean not taking opportunities when they come, and searching out new and interesting teams to join. To do otherwise is foolish, I think. But we should also give ourselves credit and fight the good/hard fight until we do place our work in a good home, even though that can be really difficult sometimes. Because if we keep fighting, and are willing to continually learn and grow, we will find homes for our best work, and eventually lots of people will want to start paying us for it. At least that's what I'm telling myself :D

Thursday, February 12, 2015

So this is something new I'm trying out. I'm having fun with the Wacom tablet I bought a couple months ago. Not anything too intense (obviously. My skills won't allow it) but hopefully some good fun. I'll be posting semi-regularly on the Pink n Purple comic blog.